[Lancaster] Hauppauge WINTV-NOVA-TD-500 igital TV card

[Ken Hough]

I've managed to get this TV card sort of working under 64 bit SUSE Linux 11.1

I first tried it under Windows XP (spit !!!), just to make sure all was well. 
Results very good --- for the card that is.  :-)

I then fired up under SUSE. It was clear that the relevant modules for this 
card had been loaded, but things didn't work. I then discovered that a bit of 
hackery is needed. See:
<http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_WinTV_Nova-T_500_PCI#Linux_Support>
This info relates to Ubuntu, but there are a lot of generally applicable clues 
including the need to download/install a firmware file and to enable the on 
board 'low noise amplifier'.

I used Kaffeine to tune into channels sucessfully. Well, sort of sucessfully 
in that only the strongest signals had been detected/tuned. Despite having 
a 'line of sight' view to the Winter Hill transmitter from my location just 
south of Kendal, I still need a good external antenna and a couple of booster 
amplifiers. Given these, I get good signal strength into my normal television 
set.

According to the link given above, it's necessary to manually enable the 'low 
noise amplifier' on the TV card. I though that I had done this, but obviously 
not sucessfully. All was OK under WinXP.

Then I got an error message which told me that codecs hadn't been installed. 
Eventually this was sorted out with the help of the Pacman repository. The 
stations that were detected could then be viewed, but some showed the broken 
banding typical of when signal strength is poor.

I just need to sort out the 'low noise amplifier' bit. Otherwise it's looking 
good.

Oh, and I need to set up the IR controller.

Regards

Ken hough



On Sunday 15 February 2009 18:13:55 Ken Hough wrote:
> Martyn,
>
> I've received my Hauppauge_WinTV_Nova-TD_500 diital TV card. It's a model
> 289 which is claimed to be OK for use under Linux.
>
> Haven't yet had time to try it out. Been doing boring things like
> backups.   :-(
>
> Will report back ASAP
>
>
> Ken Hough
>
> On Wednesday 11 February 2009 17:58:23 Martyn Welch wrote:
> > Ken Hough wrote:
> > > On Tuesday 10 February 2009 09:00:00 Martyn Welch wrote:
> > >
> > > <snip>
> > >
> > >> 1) TV Card - I have a Hauppauge Nova-TD-500 (The "new" TD version not
> > >> the "old").
> > >
> > > How can one know which version is being offered?
> >
> > Info here:
> >
> > http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_WinTV_Nova-T_500_PCI
> >
> > Note the "UPDATE 10-27-2008". TBH, if you buy a new one, it should be OK.
> >
> > >> I wouldn't necessarily pick this card again if I was to
> > >> start fresh, Linux support for the "TD" still seems a little ropey.
> > >> The advantage is that it has 2 tuners on one card, so I can record two
> > >> things at once with one card. Note that this card encodes the TV
> > >> broadcast to an MPEG stream. This is important as it saves a *lot* of
> > >> work for the CPU.
> > >
> > > That sounds good!
> > >
> > > Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions for alternative cards with
> > > similar specs?
> >
> > I'm afraid I don't.
> >
> > Martyn
>
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